With the initiative of and organized by the French Embassy in Kosovo, a delegation of five members from the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), headed by the Director of the Agency Yll Buleshkaj, conducted a two-day official visit in France (Paris), where they held meetings with leaders of counterpart institutions involved in preventing and fighting corruption. Three meetings were held on the first day of the visit.
The Anti-Corruption Agency paid the first visit to the French Anti-Corruption Agency (Agence française anticorruption), where they were welcomed by Izadora Zubek, Deputy Head of Mission for International Affairs, and and Pierre-Yves Allain, Sector Manager, discussed the role of the Anti-Corruption Agency in France, the cooperation with the Public Prosecutor's Office, as well as the Agency's forms of cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance in dealing with cases to prevent and fight corruption. During the meeting, the representatives of the anti-corruption institution in France also elaborated the Agency's cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance in preventing and fighting corruption.
The Director of ACA Yll Buleshkaj informed the representatives of the Anti-Corruption Agency in Franc of the scope of the Anti-Corruption Agency in Kosovo, in particular the organization and implementation of administrative investigation processes.
In the second meeting, the ACA delegation met with Marie Lintzer, Head of International Partnerships, and Michel Smaniotto, Deputy Secretary General of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique), where the declaration and verification of the wealth of high public officials, administrative investigations and cooperation with the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the development of processes and measures to prevent and fight corruption for civil servants in high level positions were discussed.
The Director of ACA, Yll Buleshkaj, presented to the representatives of the French institution the process of declaration of assets in Kosovo, specifically the mandate of ACA in relation to the transparency of the assets of public officials, the full control of assets as well as the role of ACA in preventing the conflict of interest of public officials. During the meeting with representatives of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life, the interlocutors also discussed the modes of international cooperation applied by the French institution to verify the assets declaration of high public officials.
The Director of the Department for the Prevention of Corruption, Afrim Atashi, emphasized the increase in the transparency of public officials and their accountability to taxpayers through the declaration of assets and making their assets public. This mechanism is yielding results in raising citizens' trust in institutions, said Atashi.
Exchange of experiences on the handling and investigation of corruption cases was the spotlight of the ACA delegation’s visit to the High Council for the Judiciary (Conseil magistrature) as part of the third meeting in France.
The delegation was received by Isabelle Pouey, Deputy General at the Court of Appeal and Lise Chipault, Deputy Secretary General. The representatives of the High Council for the Judiciary discussed with the Director of ACA, Yll Buleshkaj, the dynamics of the handling of corruption cases by the High Council for the Judiciary, while in relation to the creation of public trust in the judicial system, the representatives of the Council presented transparency as one of the main objectives of the institution, as well as opening the institution to cooperate with all sectors of society and lobbying to promote respect for the law, through publications, presentations and publication of statistics of the cases handled.
The Director of ACA, Yll Buleshkaj, presented the practices of ACA in the proceedings of cases in the State Prosecutor's Office, as well as the cooperation of ACA with relevant institutions in preventing and fighting corruption, including the need for this cooperation to become even more efficient.
